Metallic alloy.



UNITED STATES Patented February 14;, 1905.

PATENT OFFICE.

LOUIS HIPPOLYTE ERNEST LAOROIX, OF PONT DE OHERUY, FRANCE, ASSIGNOR TO JOSEPH LOUIS ROUTIN AND LEON MARTIAL EUGENE MOURRAILLE, OF LYONS, FRANCE.

MEITALLIC ALLOY.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 782,401, dated February 14, 1905.

Applicationfiled May 14, 1904- Serial No. 207,897-

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, LOUIS HIPPOLYTE ER- NEST LACROIX, a citizen of the French Republic, residing at Pontde Chruy, Isere, France,

have invented a certain new or Improved Metallio Alloy, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to a new or improved metallic alloy, the purpose of which is to serve as a substitute for lead for most of the purposes for which the latter is used.

This alloy is of greater strength and ductility than lead and is equally malleable.

The base of the alloy is lead; but the thickness of metal required for given purposes When the alloy is used is from twenty-five to forty per cent. less than that required when ordinary lead is employed, so that the weight of alloy which has to be used for any given purpose is always considerably less than the weight of lead which would be necessary for the same purpose.

The components of the improved alloy are lead, antimony, and sodium in the following proportions: lead, one thousand parts, by

weight; antimony, fifteen parts, by weight; sodium, one part, by weight. These proportions produce an alloy having in the highest degree the advantages hereinafter stated; but the porportions of antimony, sodium. and, consequently, the properties of the alloy can be varied according to the porpose for which the material is intended. The hardness of the alloy can, for instance, be increased by increasing by suitable degrees the proportions of antimony and sodium, which may reach five hundredths, by weight, in the case of the antimony, and five thousandths, by weight, in the case of the sodium.

The alloy can be manufactured in different ways. The desired quantity of antimony can, .for instance, be placed in a crucible and fused, whereupon the desired proportion of lead is added. WVhen the mixture is fused, the sodium is added and the whole. is energetically agitated and then immediately poured out. The alloy ofantimony and sodium can also be effected in one crucible, while thelead 'blowpipe.

is fused in a separate crucible. When the contents of both crucibles are fused, the antimony and sodium are poured into the crucible containing the lead, whereupon the whole is energetically agitated and immediately poured out.

Very considerable direct economy is effected by the use of the improved alloy, and the reduction of weight also has other advantages. Thus, for instance, if the new alloy is used for roofing in place of lead the beams and other parts of the structure can be made lighter. The alloy is more easy to treat than lead and can be rolled into .exceedingly thin sheets and drawn into very fine wire. The alloy is also more easy to solder than lead. It can, in fact, be soldered by means of an ordinary soldering-iron without the use of a Like lead, the alloy is 'not attacked by nitric acid, sulfuric acid of 50 Baurn, sulfuric acid of 50 Baum with nitrous gas, sulfuric acid of 66 Baum, the hydrochloric acid of commerce, distilled water, river-water, ten-per-cent. solutions ofsea-salt, caustic soda of 25 Baum, and so on. The alloy offers, generally speaking, double the mechanical resistance of lead. Its coefiicient of extension varies between twenty and thirty per cent. Itcan be worked in the lead-press to produce pipes which are size for size capable of resisting twice as great pressure as lead pipes.

I claim 1. A metallic alloy consisting of lead, antimony, and sodium, the lead being in excess of the antimony and the latter in excess of the sodium.

2. A metallic alloy consisting of one thousand parts by weight of lead, fifteen parts by weight of antimony and one part by weightof sodium.

In Witness whereof I have signed this specification in the presence of two witnesses.

LOUIS HIPPOLYTE ERNEST LAGROIX.

Witnesses:

THos. N. BROWNE, MARIN VAGHORY. 

